Right-wing politics

Right-wing politics

On the day before Halloween, Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, released a horror film of his own. Roberts stared into the camera, American flag on his lapel, and cast in his lot with Tucker Carlson, whom he called "a close friend" of the storied think tank. Hours earlier, Carlson had interviewed Nick Fuentes, king of the white nationalist groyper army, without pressing him on his most radical statements about the merits of Adolf Hitler and killing "perfidious Jews.

The Christmas lights have gone up in Stirchley. A multifaith mix of stars and swirls add a festive air to the lamp-posts along the main street of this south Birmingham suburb. Stirchley is a modest kind of place, sandwiched between better known (and better off) areas such as Bourneville and Moseley, but there is plenty of evidence here of the lively community spirit that last year resulted in the area being named the best place to live in the Midlands.

Two leading anti-immigration influencers are generating considerable personal income by selling merchandise, memberships and seeking donations to fund and grow their nationalist ideologies, according to a new report. Compiled by the Hope and Courage Collective (HCC), which monitors the far-right and disinformation in Ireland, it is due to be published this week. It has profiled two men it describes as among "the agitators and vloggers fuelling Ireland's far-right" while simultaneously "creating a business model" to turn a profit.

As President Donald Trump's approval numbers continue to plummet-he's now clocked his first-ever majority of male poll respondents giving a thumbs-down-he's reached for the pet crusade of all right-wing demagogues losing public favor: a culture war against the press. Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Trump White House debuted its media bias tracker -a laundry list of alleged press outrages committed against the righteous, truth-telling MAGAfied executive branch.

It's more accurate to say that Marine Todd, as a conservative figure of fantasy and the beefy personification of a foundational urge that runs through that movement, is both very old and very current. That fantasy is about violence, but it is also about impunity—"God was busy protecting America's military," Todd tells his professor, once he comes to, "who are out protecting your right to say stupid shit like that, so he sent me to fill in."

Was I disappointed with my former employer's decision, and how their statement almost painted me as some sort of violent person? Absolutely. Was it a spineless decision, in my opinion? Definitely. And was there irony in the fact that I was fired in order to appease a group of people, most of whom had never even heard of the company, and were never going to support them anyway,

"The popularity of YouTube podcasts among conservatives is driving a boom in small businesses tailoring ads to their millions of listeners, paying hosts like Joe Rogan and Candace Owens to read out promotions in the hope that fans will place orders. The phenomenon has enriched both the hosts and YouTube, supporting further growth of the businesses using ideology to sell."

When you have top podcasters saying Jewish Americans are disloyal, saying Trump is controlled by Jews, saying Jews need to self deport to Israel, Gen Z glorifying Hitler and doing Seig Hiels all over Tik Tok, @TuckerCarlson infiltrating movements to say the people who killed Jesus killed Charlie Kirk at Charlie's memorial, and acceptance of videos portraying Jews as cockroaches,

Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, the lone member of Congress to vote against release of the files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has a long record of anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant, and racist stances. Higgins said he voted against the bill ordering release because innocent people would be injured by revelation of their names and personal information. However, "survivors' personal information and other sensitive material can be withheld or redacted with explanations to Congress," CBS News notes.

Jon Stewart joked Trump "already has the merch," referring to a red "Trump 2028" cap. Steve Bannon keeps teasing "a plan" to keep Trump in office. The Russian dissident and former chess champion Garry Kasparov warns of democracy's demise. It's a perfect storm of satire, conspiracy, and clickbait, but none of it adds up to a third term for Donald Trump.

If there was a single moment that signaled the curtain closing on Sen. Chuck Schumer's era at the helm of the Democratic Party, it most certainly occurred in New York City on Tuesday, November 4, when the upstart Zohran Mamdani decapitated the Democratic machine and handed New York's former Gov. Andrew Cuomo the most devastating loss of his career. Mamdani's ascent had to have been startling for Schumer, who has